Messy

Sam's word of the day is "mess." {Actually, today she has two new words, but the other is "elbow," which isn't really pertinent in this tale. :-)} And indeed, today's run was a bit messy. I headed out once Sam went down for her nap, right at 12:00. It's a beautiful spring day, bright and sunny and 60. Hurray! It's also a bit windy out there, but what else is new? Seems to be windy all the time, these days. My plan was to run our winter 7-mile snowmobile trail/dump loop, see how I felt, and add on if I had more energy. Turns out I didn't. The trails were tough going. There were sinkholes in the mud, the sand, the snow, and there were stretches of slushy snow and ice that could have used screw shoes. I slipped and slip, and postholed and sunk and lurched, and in general used up a lot of energy just trying to keep upright, and drag around my wet, mud-laden shoes :-) (Valerie and Mindy, I can't believe you ran 24 and 14 miles, respectively, on the trails yesterday. My 7 about did me in. You two are awesome!) I ended up just running the 7 mile loop, and was happy to look down at the Garmin at the end and realize I had (just barely) finished at under 10:00 pace. I had hoped to have more "umph" in my step and get in some more miles, but ah well. I can't complain, as my sick and injured, and increasingly cranky, husband, would kill to be out running on a day like today, and is instead stuck inside on the couch. So, I will be happy with my miles and my hour+ on the trails. Here's to more melting and more drying on the trails soon!!

Sam at 18 Months

18 months. Wow! Where did the time go? Sam continues to amaze us every day. She may be small but she is mighty! :-) And she continues to be a happy, social and observant child. This is not to say that she is not a challenge at times, and we certainly are having "those moments" where she goes from happy to melt down in 2 seconds flat, but somehow I think you can't have a child without going though some of that!

Sam is an excellent communicator and truly seems to comprehend most of what we say, following through on instructions, or giving us a smirk and doing exactly what we asked her not to do :-), etc. Her list of words is quite long, and now includes: neck, knee, dip (ketchup, hummus, etc), boo boo, no, yes, mama, daddo, nini (my mom), pipi (my dad), grammie (Ryan's mom), bampie (Ryan's grandfather), Gigi, Ronnie, baby, my baby, book, read, run, go, bag, ball, Elmo, rub rub (for hand washing/lotion), up, down, out, nite nite, hi, bye, "oh boy!", "uh oh!", "what's that?", "what is (it)?", pasta, pizza, "me me me" (translation: give it to me!), mine, thank you, and probably some others that I've fogotten. She also knows the sounds for snake (sssss), bee (buzz), penguin (waddle waddle), horse (neigh), owl (hoo hoo), dog (woof woof), cat (meow), lion/tiger (roar), sheep (baa), monkey (oh oh oh), and she flutters her arms for butterfly, claps her arms together for crocodile, and raises her arm like a trunk for an elephant. She can point, when asked, to her feet, leg, knee, belly, bellybutton, neck, arm, hands, hair, mouth, teeth, nose and eyes, and to the same body parts on our bodies. She knows, and still uses, the signs (or really, her own signs) for 'please,' 'more,' 'all done,' 'hat', 'hair brush', 'toothbrush' and 'mittens.'

She loves for me to sing to her. I'm not much of a singer (just ask Ryan), but I have been singing "ABC," "The Wheels on the Bus," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Row Row Row Your Boat" and "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" a lot lately. Mostly when we're in the car. The singing seems to calm Sam too when she's upset, and I'll look back into the kid mirror and see that she is signing "more" when I stop singing, and start up again. She tries to sing along, imitates the spider crawling up the water spout hand gestures, and can now say "A,B" when she's "singing" the "ABC" song in her sing-songy voice, which is just so cute!  She also loves to dance. She'll stand edge of by the TV stand, where we keep the IPod, and do this little up and down "dance" movement with her legs to let us know she'd like some music to dance too. She's white alright :-) and doesn't have much rhythm but I do love to see her bopping to music. Last night in the restaurant, she was grooving in her highchair to the music!

She has been working on putting her own clothes on, trying unsuccessfully to put on her own shirt, socks and shoes, with putting on and wearing her hat being her most successful and therefore most loved technique! She can take at least one pair of shoes off successfully. She puts her arms out for her jacket, and will sit down by the door when it is time to go outside so that we can put on her shoes. Although we still feed her occasionally, she loves to have control of her own bowl and spoon/fork. Of course, a lot of times it means she just plays with her food, but oh well! She can feed herself yogurt quite well, and is working on pasta too, although it's often messy ;-)

Messy girl! And do you see all those teeth?! (4 new ones up top, still just 2 on the bottom)

She can twist the cap on and off her fruit pouches, and loves to play with our water bottles and their tops, trying to figure out how things work. Playing with her blocks and stacking cups takes up a lot of our time, and she's still loving her books and coloring. She's definitely in the stage where she loves to copy what we're doing. She does a lot of "cleaning," rubbing a baby wipe around on the floor, the chairs, etc, since she watches me use wipes to clean up her messes often :-)

We're still working on stairs, but she can go up and down on her little stool holding onto the coffee table all by herself. She loves to walk, walk, walk, and will stop and ask what everything on the ground is. "What is?" "What is?" "What is?" When we hear a bird, she will stop and look up, and make her "Oh!" face. So cute! She loves to share, and to feed us bites of her food. She also loves to try to give her food to Ronnie and Gigi, although sometimes she will catch Ronnie eating her cheerios and trot over to him and say "no no!" :-) Again, adorable!

We don't have her 18 month stats yet, but according to her latest ear check appointment, she has finally eclipsed the 20 pound mark, just barely! Yeah :-)

Run, Run, Run

In my head, when I was thinking about this week's running, I had been gearing up for the Merrimack River Trail Race, which happened this morning. Well, things didn't quite go as planned this week, so unfortunately, "The Rivah" ended up not being in the cards. However, we did decide we would still go south to spend the weekend at Ryan's parents. His sister and brother-in-law were coming up, so it seemed like a good chance to see everyone, and to get a little distraction for the weekend, both for Ryan and Sam. Unfortunately, that didn't quite go as planned either, as Ryan started to feel a bit feverish last night, and decided traveling was just not a good idea. However, this morning, he pretty much told Sam and I to get in the car and go down for the day, and leave him in peace to rest! I was a bit discombobulated by this turn of events, but I raced around gathering things up, and we headed out. It was a great day of visiting, and I'm glad we took the drive. Sam had a lot of fun with Grammie, Grampie, Auntie Meg and Uncle Chris! Thanks guys!

All this means that running today also didn't go as planned either :-) Yesterday, since I knew the race was out, I figured I would stick with a pretty mellow week, and just went out for a quick run before work. I headed down the powerlines to Topsham Crossing for a short 3 miler. It was chilly out, so things were fairly solid, but more and more bare ground (ie. mud) is beginning to appear. Today, I had hoped to go over to Bradley Palmer for a trail run on bare, dry ground while Sam slept and Ryan visited with his family, but when we decided to go down and back in one day, I didn't really want to spend more time driving, so I settled for a nice 5 mile road run in the middle of the day. It was beautiful out! 65 and sunny. A bit windy, but boy, did it feel great to be running in shorts and a t-shirt, and to feel good! I think that after two mellow recovery weeks, my body is ready for a bit more mileage. I ran the 5 miles at 7:38 pace, and although I was working a bit, things felt pretty comfortable. Hopefully I'll get out for a longer run tomorrow to start things off in the right direction.

In flora and fauna news: I've seen a lot of cool birds lately, including the osprey returning to nest along Rt. 1, and a flock of 10 Great Blue Heron flying over the house yesterday morning in geese-like formation. I love this time of year as the birds come back! Today's run didn't yield much of excitement bird-wise, but I did see a number of little turtles and mallards in one of the ponds I passed, and ran across a decent size Garter snake sunning itself at the edge of the road. I tried to scare him off the pavement, but he hissed and lunged at me, so I let him be, and hoped for the best. I also saw a fox, a porcupine and several Red-tailed Hawks along the highway's edge as Sam and I drove home as the sun set.

Mixed Bag

Yesterday was a day off. We all woke up a bit late, so I took Sam into daycare, and got home with just enough time to shower and hop in the car to accompany Ryan to the hospital for another chest x-ray and a visit to the pulmonologist's office. The good news is that the x-ray showed that there was no expansion of the pneumothorax, meaning the doctor felt that this was a "no brainer," so to speak and should heal up on its own without any chest tube needed, etc. Hurray! We do have to go back for another follow-up x-ray and visit later this week/early next, just to ensure that things are indeed healing up and haven't taken a turn for the worse. But the doctor was pretty chill about the whole thing, and really didn't think Ryan had much to worry about. In fact, he felt the air pocket should dissipate/reabsorb within a week or so, which is great. Now, the broken ribs and rib pain are a whole other story, but I know we were both relieved to hear that the lung wasn't really an issue at this point!

After dropping Ryan back off at home, I headed up to work for the afternoon, so there was just no time to run. But that's OK. I'm still in recovery mode from the 50k, so I don't need to be doing high mileage this week anyway. But today, I didn't want to waste a bright and beautiful morning, so I headed out on the powerlines around 8:30, after dropping Sam off at daycare and running a few errands. I decided to run straight out on the powerlines to check out the conditions. There is a lot of bare ground out there, but overall, the conditions were a mixed bag. Soft sand, frozen sand, soft mud, mud mixed with hoar frost, mud pocked with sinkholes, snow, ice and a few puddles. Still, it was good to see things melting, and nice to know I could get in a good, messy trail run from home. I didn't have the time to explore some of the side trails and the winter/summer loops off the main powerlines, so I just turned around once my Garmin read 2.5 miles. The way back was straight into the wind - the whole way - and I could definitely tell I didn't quite have the regular 'umph' back in my legs, so it was a bit of a slow go on the return trip, but I came in the door with muddy shoes and tights and that means it was a fun run, for sure! :-)

Not What We Had Planned

Last night, we went over to Nate and Shannon's for dinner. The plan was to celebrate Ryan's win at the Gator Trail, catch up and let the kids play together. It sounded like such a great idea! Unfortunately, only about 15 minutes after we arrived, Ryan picked up Finley and took a few steps with him in his arms across the living room, probably headed to give him a piggy back or a twirl him around in his arms. The next thing we knew, both Ryan and Finley had hit the floor. Finley was fine, and bounced right back up, shocked more than hurt, I think. Ryan, however, didn't move for quite a while, clutching his back. We ended up ending the evening almost immediately. Ryan was just in too much pain, and wanted nothing else but to come home and sit in one spot on the couch with an ice pack.

He decided on the ride home not to go to the ER, thinking he had probably cracked or bruised a rib, about which nothing could really be done. He seemed OK through the rest of the evening, but when he went to get into bed, it was another story. It became quickly evident that something was indeed wrong, and he agreed that he did need to go get himself checked out. Unfortunately, at this point, it was already 10am, Sam was asleep, and so, he ended up driving himself to the hospital. I was really nervous about this, but it didn't seem we had too much choice. (Valerie, we thought of calling you, but Ryan decided he just really needed to get there now!) I laid awake in bed, waiting for his text that he had arrived. When it did, the thumping of my heart in my chest slowed down, and I was able to relax a bit. Both kitties snuggled up against me, as if they knew I needed some support. I didn't think I'd fall asleep, but I guess I did, as I awoke to Ryan coming home at around 1:30am. Turns out, he has two broken ribs and a punctured lung. The puncture is small, so it appears it will heal up on his own, but still darn scary! Luckily he is young and healthy, and the prescribed percocet is helping to dull the pain, and overall, he is doing remarkably well.

This is certainly not what we had expected when we went out last night to have a nice dinner with our friends! But accidents happen, and this was just that. A freak thing. A slip and a hard fall in socks on a hardwood floor. A chance landing, just so, at a weird angle. And so, with that, Ryan is on the DL. No lifting. No picking up Sam. No physical exertion. No running. Just resting and healing. But heal he will. And hopefully he'll be back out running in no time!

~

Speaking of running, after dropping Sam off at daycare and then taking Ryan back to the hospital this morning for another chest x-ray,  I headed out for a short run. I ran 3.5 miles, wandering through the Mt. Ararat and Highland Green roads and trails. There is still a fair amount of snow out in the woods. It was dreary and damp out, and I felt tired. But it was good to be out running. I am lucky, and I can't forget that. To be able to move, to run, to sweat. So run I will.

A Little Bit of Everything

This morning's run had a little bit of everything... Things went from pavement to packed dirt and gravel to sand to snow to ice to water to frozen mud to soft mud and back again. Variable is the term for today, for sure! It was a nice morning, bright and sunny, with rising temps and a good breeze, as I headed around a little before 10:00 am. I ran our revised 5-mile Highland Green loop, and was happy to be feeling better today!

Sam seems to be feeling better too. She had a few longer stretches of sleep last night and woke up in a good mood at her normal wake-up time. However, we could really use to get rid of all the phlegm and post-nasal drip she has going! Poor little girl. She has been coughing a lot, and especially at night, it seems like her body decides that it has had enough of the phlegm and the coughing turns into spitting up. Gross. This has happened the past three nights, right before bedtime or soon after. Gotta love having her all ready for bed, and then needing to do a complete change of her, yourself, the bed. Sigh. Phlegm, phlegm go away!

She also has been teething, and the four top middle teeth are now all finally through, and looking big. She went from 2 1/2 teeth to 6 teeth in no time. I do think that might have been part of the reason for the interrupted sleep the past few nights too. With all her teeth, she is definitely looking like a full-on toddler now!

Bam

The second my feet hit the ground this morning on my run, I felt it. I guess the combination of having run a 50k last Saturday, traveling late into the night on Tuesday, and basically being up every 2 hours for the past three nights with a sick kiddo finally caught up to me. I was tired. My legs felt like cement. I felt a bit like I'd been run over with a truck. So, I took the cue from my body, and ran an easy 3 miles on Ryan's Patriots Common loop instead of attempting anything more ambitious. There's always tomorrow.

Short

Although yesterday was beautiful, and my last "extra" day off for the winter, I didn't get out to run. The combination of getting home late on Tuesday combined with Sam feeling a bit off and subsequently getting up a lot in the night, not to mention Ronnie's yowlings at 5am, meant that I did not get a lot of sleep, and I just didn't feel great when I woke up on Wednesday. But there was work to be done, so I ran around and got the house back in order, did laundry, cleaned, cooked, grocery shopped, all of which was necessary after a week away! After all the chores were done, I think I might have changed my mind later in the afternoon and actually gone out for a run anyway, except that I was called in to pick Sam up early from daycare. She had a high fever. Poor baby girl!

She perked up a bit after some dinner and a dose of ibuprofin, but woke up in the middle of the night with yet another high temperature reading on the thermometer. We all managed to go back to sleep, but I was still tired when I woke up around 6am. However, I knew I was going to be home with Sam, so I forced myself up and out the door at 6:30am for a quick run before Ryan headed over to New Hampshire for work. It was a really pretty morning - crisp and clear, with the sun just rising above the trees as I hit the high ground on the powerlines by the high school, turning the horizon a brilliant orange. Very pretty. All things considered, I felt pretty good for the 3 miles, and I was happy what was left of the snow between the school and Highland Green Road was still nice and packed, which made the going easier.

When I got home, I made the call to Cordelia telling her that after a week away, I was going to be away for yet another day. Luckily it is still quiet at the gallery, but it was still bad timing. Of course, maybe there is never good timing for being sick! I took Sam in to the doctor after she woke up, and turns out she has an ear infection in her right ear and conjunctivitis. Poor kid. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in quickly and she'll feel better soon.

She's sleeping at the moment, and I'm relaxing, enjoying the flurry of activity out at the birdfeeder. A pair of white-breasted nuthatches, goldfinch, juncoes, chickadees, sparrows and what I think was a house finch have been feasting away on the seeds. Must be lunchtime!

Much Better

We awoke to a light frost coating the golf course out back. The thermometer read 33 degrees as the sun began to light up the sky a few minutes before 7am. Ryan and Dad decided it was just a bit too cold to play golf this morning, so we had a leisurely morning instead, and around 9:30, Ryan and I headed out for a run while Mom, Dad and Sam suited up in their sneakers to head out for a short walk. It was still cool out, but the sun was bright and warm. I was still feeling fatigued, but my legs had a bit more spring. All in all, a much better day to be out and a much better run than yesterday, with the 3 miles coming much more easily.

We ran down to the mail boxes to drop off a letter for Dad, and then meandered back to their house on the dirt/gravel path along the edge of the River Landing property. The path winds through some trees and then along some of the man-made ponds at the edge of the golf course, and today, the route made for some excellent birding.

We saw a group of around two dozen cormorants and two Great Blue Herons in one pond, and scared up a beautiful Great Heron from the edge of another pond, where he stood silently stalking fish. Groups of swallows swarmed and dove above us, and a few red-winged blackbirds chattered amongst the shrubs, along with the resident robins, mockingbirds and brown thrashers. A pair of turkey vultures rode the air currents high above, and we flushed a pair of Bald Eagles up into the trees and then back out over the fields as we ran along. The Eagles soared and swooped, making their way over towards my parent's house, where Mom, Dad, Sam and a few neighbors stood in the backyard watching the mighty birds flying over as the bluebirds flitted in and out of the bird house. I guess everyone had decided it was a better day indeed and was out to enjoy it :-)

Ouch

Well, that was painful. I think the three miles we just ran might have been more painful than Saturday's race. Ouch! Not to mention, it was 39 degrees, misty and windy. That didn't make it any more pleasant. But we powered through, contemplating our twinges, heads down against the wind. Hopefully the next run out will feel a bit better!

Luckily, the morning was a lot more fun than our afternoon run! Since it wasn't exactly a good day to play outside, we headed down to Wilmington to the Children's Museum. Sam had a blast, although she may have been a bit overwhelmed by all the exhibits and the older kids running around. She particularly enjoyed the grocery store. The carts were just her size!

 

Grocery shopping

After running around the museum for a while, we headed to Ryan's favorite Wilmington lunch spot - Flaming Amy's. Sam loved the funky decor, and bopped to the music in her highchair. She also thoroughly enjoyed her quesadilla!

Chomp chomp!

A Big Thank You

I realized that I was remiss in my race report, and didn't include a HUGE thank you to my parents for watching Sam all day yesterday while we raced. They took over monitor duty at 6am when we left the house, and watched Sam from the time she woke up at 6:40am, all through the race, and into the evening, walking around with her in the restaurant when she didn't want to sit in her highchair for dinner. It was a big job and we couldn't have gotten through our races without their help. Thank you thank you Nanie and Pip!!!!

They didn't pull into Lake Waccamaw until right as Ryan was finishing - they weren't expecting him to run quite so fast! - so there are no finishing photos of the winner from their camera unfortunately, but here are a few shots from their time at the park:

"Daddo, why are you so sweaty?!"

Walking on the Visitor's Center ramp

Ryan sporting his TMR gear and a post-race waddle

The final stretch

Happy finisher

"Mom, let's go! Why won't you get up to walk with me?! What, you ran 31 miles? Who cares?? There are places to go!!!"

We've decided to take the day off from running today - not only is it 46 degrees and rainy, but we're both still waddling around, so it seems like the thing to do. Hopefully we'll feel a bit more human by tomorrow!

2011 Gator Trail 50k Race Report

I may not have talked much about today's Gator Trail 50k, but I sure have been thinking a lot about it over the past few months. After last May's DNF at Pineland, I really really wanted to get the 50k monkey off my back, so to speak, and when Ryan suggested the Gator Trail many months ago, it seemed like a great plan. A chance for redemption. A bit of a vacation. A chance to visit my parents and get a race in. What's not to love? Of course, then reality hit, and I didn't quite get in as many long runs as I had hoped for this winter, and certainly didn't do as much training as Ryan did over the past few months. But I felt strong, and I began to harbor hope for not only a finish, but a decent finish. In my mind, and said out loud to only a few, my "reach" goal was 4:30, with 9:30 pace being my "tough, but possible and if so, it would be awesome" goal, and just plain finishing without collapsing being my main goal. I'm happy to say I managed to finish in 4:47:11, and although the Garmin measured only 30.2, I'm calling it 50k which that means I ran 9:15ish pace. Woohoo! I also managed to come in 2nd for the women, which was an added bonus. Then again, the total finisher pool was likely only in the 30s and there might have been only 7 or 8 women out there, but I'll take it! :-) Redemption is sweet. Now if I could only walk normally, all would be good :-)

Speaking of sweet, Ryan WON.THE.WHOLE.THING! 1st overall in a blistering time of 3:56:29. Awesome work, Snowman! You rock!! I'm so happy for you. You earned it.

The day started out with us leaving the house at 6am, in the pitch black, and heading out on some winding, middle of nowhere roads to reach Lake Waccamaw State Park. We saw one deer and one coyote on the drive, and luckily, both bounded away from the car off the road instead of into the car. Phew. I was my typical race morning nervous mess disaster with my stomach in knots the whole drive. I felt better after we made a pit stop at a random convenience store along the way.

We arrived in plenty of time before the 8am start, getting our numbers, checking out the competition and setting up our own personal aid station by the car. Runners milled around the parking lot, coming and going, and finally it was time to line up. The thing was that there was really no starting line. The race director gave us some directions, said "Oh, and don't litter" and then said "OK, ready, set, go." We were all sort of spread out in the parking lot, so everyone just started their watches where they stood and took off. It was pretty funny. Ryan sped to the front, and I called out "Hope you know where you're going, Ryan!" That got a good laugh from the crowd as we ran down the drive and took the first turn into the pine forest.

The run consisted of five 10k loops. The loop started and ended on pavement in the Visitor's Center/parking area, and took us on most of the trails through the park. It was very flat. The first stretch was through the pine forest which had had a very recent controlled burn. A few ashes still smoldered along the edge of the trail. The trail through most of this stretch was loose sand, and the air smelled of smoke. Then another short pavement stretch and further into the park, on yet another wide sandy trail. Here we passed the primitive camp area, where a big group of Boy Scouts had set up camp. A few runners around me joked about just wanting to go curl up by the fire instead of continuing the run. Sounded pretty good to me! But alas, on we ran. From there, we ran up to the lake, turned left and headed out onto a 0.6 mile spur, at the end of which was a board with our names and where we were to stick a sticker on each lap. Gotta keep us honest! This was the only chance to get a look at who was around you as you went out and back. And it was here, on the first lap, that I had my one and only glimpse of Ryan for the rest of the run.

After completing the out-and-back spur, the trail meandered along the edge of the lake, twisting and turning through the trees, the trail pine and leaf covered, with a bit of sand and lots of roots to grab at your feet. It was actually really pretty through here, and was probably my favorite stretch of trail, although I'd say it was also the hardest, or at least the most technical. The loop finished with a long stretch on a wide boardwalk that led from the Visitor's Center out to the lake and a return to the parking area.

The first loop went quickly, and I was surrounded by people the whole way, but as we went back through the start/finish area, things thinned out a bit. However, I did end up running part of lap #2 with a Marine who had been stationed for a number of years in Brunswick. What are the chances of that?! We had fun chatting, but he left me in the dust at the turn-around point, and I was on my own. I did leap-frog back and forth with a few guys as the rest of the loops went by, and I kept noticing on the out-and-back stretch that the lead woman was getting further and further ahead, but still, through the end of lap #3, I still felt strong and comfortable.

Admittedly, as I started out on lap #4, with 18 miles on my legs, the sand started to be a bigger deal and the little ups and downs started to feel bigger. But by now, I knew what was ahead of me, and I broke the loop up into segments, chugging along gamely as best I could. My average pace definitely slowed from the start of loop 1 to the start of loop 4, but I think I did an OK job of  keeping things pretty even throughout, with most of the slow down occurring because of my pee breaks, and the stops at the start/finish to get my sticker and at the out-and-back turn around on each lap. I also walked through the start/finish drinking water and eating a few chips at the start of lap #4 and #5. Anyway, I won't pick at hairs here, because, really, it was a great run and I'm very happy with it. I am extra happy that in the last few miles of lap #5, when I was tired and so wanting to be done, I managed to talk myself into (I really did talk to myself out there, which is kinda scary, but it did work) picking up the pace from the turn-around point back to the finish, and also managed to pass 3 people in that stretch. I gave it all I had, and was super happy to make the final turn off the boardwalk onto the park drive. There Ryan, and my parents and Sam, were cheering me on as I made my way around the lot to the finish line. Sam might have been a bit scared of crazy Mama, racing by her, gritting her teeth between smiles and working hard for a finishing kick, though :-)

Anyway, like I said, I am super happy with how the race went, and it really was a fun run. It was well marked, thoughtfully directed, and really highlighted this neat little park on the shores of one big honkin' lake. The race director was great, the volunteers friendly, and it had a nice, low-key but serious feel with some friendly competition. Bad music blared from the speakers in the start/finish area, kids played in the grass, almost everyone had drawling southern accents, and both Ryan and I received a fun gator picture frame award for our efforts. We even passed a neat (snapping?) turtle nest in the sand around 2 miles into each loop, the ping-pong-esque eggs sitting neatly stacked in the sand. No gators though :-)

Stats according to my Garmin ~

Total time: 4:47:10
Total distance: 30.2 (but I'm calling it 50k!!!)
Total elevation gain/loss: 77 feet.
Results - 9/26; 2/6 women. A small field, yes, but needless to say, both Ryan and I were very proud to don our Trail Monster singlets at the race today!

And now, I'm off to eat more ice cream. Wish me luck standing up from the computer!! :-)

One Last Run

We headed out this morning for one last run before the Gator Trail 50k. It was only 51 degrees, overcast and breezy. Ahhh... now that's better!! As for tomorrow's race, I'm pretty nervous ,for sure, but looking forward to a fun race on the trails around Lake Waccamaw. After all, we are lucky to have the chance to test ourselves out on the trails, and see what our bodies can do. At this point, I've done all that I can do training-wise, I am accepting of the suffering to come and have faith in my ability to push through it, and we're loving the forecast for tomorrow too - low 40s overnight and only into the 60s for daytime temps. Perfect.

Since it's a taper week, we took yesterday off and just relaxed. Or, relaxed as much as you can when you're racing around after a 17-month old! :-) But really, we even sat down to watch the taped episode of Top Chef that we had missed Wednesday night. Sat down to watch TV in the middle of the day! Wow. That happens, like... never... Ahhhh, vacation...

After a big wind and rain storm on Wednesday night, the temps dipped slightly and a lot of the pine pollen was washed away, meaning it was a pleasant day to spend time outside. We walked around my parent's yard, went to the playground, and in general, relished in the fact that it is spring down here. There may have been a bit of grumbling here and there about how warm it still felt, but hey :-) The trees are budding, the grass is growing and the birds are building their nests. The flora and fauna notes so far include: numerous green anole (aka gecko) spottings on my parent's back porch, osprey, turkey vultures, robins, cormorants, a male cardinal, a Great Blue Heron, tufted titmice, the pair of bluebirds and chipping sparrows building nests out back, lots of mockingbirds and a few Brown Thrashers, the pretty yellow Carolina Jasmine, dogwood trees and purple Wisteria. Not to mention all the flowers blooming in the gardens and the flowering trees.

And since a visit with my parents inevitably includes lots of photos, here are a few from the past few days:

Green Anole (aka gecko)

Sam in the backyard

At the windowsill

Peeking through the chef's hat given to Sam by Chef Charles at dinner last night

Walking with Daddo at the edge of the golf course

Sam all dressed up for dinner out

Sam on the swings (note her cute little Nikes!)

Dinner Portrait

Walking out the of clubhouse with Nanie after dinner

50 Degrees

We made it to North Carolina! Sam was an awesome traveler today, despite being woken up at 5:45 am, driving into Boston, sitting in the stroller through the long check-in line, taking a plane ride to Raleigh and then getting in the car for another 1 1/2 hours before arriving at Mom and Dad's house. She had a blast on the plane, and really was good all day. We couldn't have asked for more.

After being up at 5:45 am, Sam was more than ready for a nap when we got to Mom and Dad's and didn't protest at all when we put her in her crib. While she was sleeping, Ryan and I went out for a short shake-out run. It was just downright HOT out! In fact, it was 50 degrees warmer on our run this afternoon than it was on our run through the snow yesterday. Talk about an abrupt transition! We're really hoping it cools down a bit before Saturday, and that the pine pollen abates a bit too.

Once Sam woke up, we spent the afternoon playing outside. Sam loved running through the grass, and walking/running up and down the little hills at the edge of Mom and Dad's yard. She is just so stinkin' cute, and seriously couldn't get enough of being outside! :-)

Hill running and loving it!

Sam in her summer gear

Spring Snow

I guess winter wasn't quite done with us yet! We woke up to about 3" of wet snow, the type that sticks to the trees and makes things look pretty, but which should melt pretty quickly as soon as the sun hits. It is still March after all, so we really can't expect for the trails to be completely clear, but the past week has been a bit of a tease. You start to see lots of bare ground and think, 'ohhh, I'll be able to get out on that singletrack soon!' Then with a small storm like we got last night, you realize, oh yeah, I guess there are a few more weeks to go. Ah well, we'll be running on dry (or muddy) trails soon enough!

Ryan and I headed out around 10:00am to run 5 miles. Nothing like a run in the snow to prepare for race day temps forecasted in the 70s :-) (Although we will get in a few runs at my parent's house over the next few days, and somehow I'm sure those runs will be warm!) We chose to run the rather boring out-and-back on the Highland Green Road via the Connector to avoid the new snow covering potential ankle-breakers on the powerlines, running along at the rather quick (for me) pace of just under 8 minute miles. 

Then it was home for a few hours of packing, organizing and running a few errands before we pick Sam up and head out! Gator Trail 50k, here we come!